Chapter 16 - Not Everything Was Gone After All (3)

"Huuuk. I-It hurts."

The man crawled on the floor. With his bloodied mouth, he sobbed like a child, continuously crying out in pain. The prince strode over to the man.

"Agh!"

Kicked in the side, the man rolled over. The prince's hand roughly grabbed the man by the hair.

"Y-Your Highness!"

The members of the club, who had been in a daze, called out to the prince like a scream. But before they could even take action, the prince's hand moved.

SMASH.

The full liquor bottle squarely smashed into the man's mouth.

"Agh!"

A beat later, a scream flowed out. A moment after that, shattered pieces of teeth and chunks of flesh spilled out.

SMACK. SMACK.

The prince rained down fists on that completely ruined face. His remaining intact front teeth shattered in an instant, scattering in all directions.

The merciless beating continued.

"Uuurgh."

The man, who was the heir of the Balson family, finally rolled his eyes back.

The prince let go of the hair he was gripping. The man's lifeless head dropped, slamming mercilessly against the floor with a loud thud.

'U-Uh. If he's left like that, he'll suffocate to death.'

The moment the people thought that, the prince delivered a kick. The Balson family man, who was sprawled out on his back, was sent flying into the corner with a smack. Blood gushed from the mouth of the intermittently twitching man.

Whether it was intentional or not, he avoided suffocation thanks to that. But if he wasn't treated quickly, he would die.

Even knowing this, no one could move. They had instinctively felt it. That the one who decided whether the Balson family man lived or died was the prince.

And the verdict had already been pronounced.

["From now on, your sibling is the heir to the family."]

From the very beginning, the prince had no intention of letting the man from the Balson family live.

'Just why?'

That was the question that collectively surfaced in people's minds.

Weren't they all giggling together just a moment ago? Just what and where had triggered the prince's temper?

They had to remember quickly. If any of them had made the same mistake, they had to somehow fix it. Eyes met. Glances were exchanged.

No one had a clear answer. The only things contained in those exchanged glances were bewilderment and doubt.

The prince casually shook the blood off his fist. Then he looked around.

With a gaze swirling with deep blue light, the prince parted his lips.

"I can tolerate you thinking of me as a scoundrel, but I cannot tolerate you treating me like a scoundrel."

"..."

"...?"

Incomprehensible words, but the prince seemed to have absolutely no intention of making them understand.

"Eli."

"Y-Your Highness!"

Bernard Eli bowed his head in alarm.

"Didn't I say that I was going to have a lot of fun today?"

A person was dying right beside him, and his fist was still drenched in blood. And yet, his voice was as excited as if he had come to a festival.

"Go and fetch the Royal Knights."

"I shall do as commanded!"

Shouting loudly, Bernard Eli slipped out of the room as if fleeing.

"The women can leave."

At the prince's words, the pale-faced women hurriedly left their seats.

"I said women."

A few men, who had been trying to slip out of the room during the commotion, froze stiff at the prince's words.

"Leave if you want to. But if you do, you'll be leaving as women."

There was no one who didn't understand what the prince's words meant. And there was no one who would leave the room if it meant suffering such a terrible fate.

CLANK, CLANK.

The sound of clashing armor could be heard, and soon the Royal Knights burst in.

* * *

"His Highness has summoned you."

The son of the Eli family, who had paid them a sudden visit, was deathly pale for some reason.

"His Highness?"

"Well, there's been a minor altercation inside..."

Before he could even finish speaking, Karl Ulrich fired off orders like a rapid-fire cannon.

"You and you, lock down the mansion with the soldiers! The rest of you, follow me and charge inside! Above all else, ensure that securing His Highness's safety is your top priority!"

The Royal Knights sprinted into the mansion.

They saw women sobbing with heavily smudged makeup. Seeing them scattering in all directions with faces like animals startled by a forest fire made them feel a sense of urgency. The Royal Knights flew down the corridor.

"His Highness is in there!"

The man of the Eli family, unable to keep up with their dazzling speed and lagging behind, pointed at the door at the end of the hallway. The Royal Knights burst into the room with their hands resting on their sword hilts, ready to draw their blades at any moment.

Karl Ulrich's gaze quickly scanned the surroundings.

Beyond the vision obscured as if by fog, he saw the chaotic state of the room.

Men pressed firmly against the walls with disheveled clothing, a bloodied man lying on the floor, and smashed and shattered liquor glasses and bottles.

"Your Highness!"

In the very center of it all stood the prince.

"We have arrived!"

They drew their swords and surrounded the prince. As they glared in all directions with flashing eyes, they finally noticed the expressions of the men pressed against the walls.

'Hmm?'

Karl Ulrich narrowed his eyes.

The men, who were undoubtedly the sons of noble families, were terrified out of their wits for some reason. They looked like a flock of sheep who, after fleeing and fleeing from a predator that had jumped into their pen, found themselves blocked by a wall and didn't know what to do.

He rolled his eyes. He saw the prince, who looked unbothered in a way that didn't suit the situation. He also saw the fist clumped with blood and flesh.

"Your Highness? Just what on earth is this mess?"

"They did not kneel or show respect before a prince. Furthermore, they coveted the Royal House's treasured sword. What charges can be applied in this case?"

Karl Ulrich replied with a stiff face.

"Failing to show proper etiquette to a royal means they treated a royal with contempt, which is the crime of insulting the royal family, and coveting the royal family's property means they challenged the royal family's authority, which is akin to treason."

After saying that, he looked around with sharp eyes.

"Who shall we force to kneel?"

"All of them."

Karl, who had been waiting for the order to fall, momentarily wore a dumbfounded expression.

"Y-Your Highness! How could I ever look down on Your Highness! That was never my intention!"

"Your Highness! Please forgive us with a generous heart!"

"Coveting the treasured sword! It was merely admiration for Your Highness's imposing figure; we didn't have the slightest intention of doing such a thing!"

There were those who simply begged for forgiveness, and those who made excuses and pleaded. However, not a single one of them claimed that the incident hadn't happened at all.

"How dare you!"

The furious Royal Knights kicked the backs of the men's knees and struck them with their scabbards. Instantly, the men ended up sprawled on the floor, begging for forgiveness.

"Then what about that man..."

Having forced all the men to their knees, Karl Ulrich looked at the bloodied, sprawled out man and asked about his crime.

"He laughed at me to my face and insulted my knight."

"He treated Arwen Kirgayen like a whore." The prince's voice was colder than ever before. Karl unwittingly looked back at the prince. For some reason, the prince seemed admirable.

Even during this, the nobles were clamoring.

"Your Highness! Please forgive us, if only for my father's sake!"

"Our family has pledged loyalty to the royal family for generations! How could someone like me!"

Through the begging and pleading voices, a defiant voice popped out.

"Your Highness! Even if you are His Highness, you cannot treat the eldest son of House Guirn like this!"

A man with glazed eyes, steeped in alcohol, glared at the prince and spoke.

"We can still cover this up now! If you do so, our family will treat Your Highness with unchanging loyalty! But if you truly insist on having your way, our family will not be able to just sit and watch..."

"Do it."

Before he could even finish speaking, the prince stepped forward.

"I said, do it."

FLINCH.

Startled by that fierce momentum, the eldest son of House Guirn trembled.

"But you see."

The prince smiled coldly.

"Before that, your father's head will be hung on the castle walls. Because his son just committed treason."

The man turned pale. He realized that the words he had brought up merely to flaunt his background had gone too far. The alcohol that had filled his eyes completely vanished in a flash.

"Y-Your Highness! That was not what I meant! I merely..."

"What are you doing? Do I have to keep listening to this?"

Just then, the soldiers burst into the mansion. Karl handed the sons of the noble families over to them.

"What should we do with the son of the Eli family?"

"Leave him be."

He had knelt, even if hypocritically, and hadn't run his mouth frivolously. There was no particular reason to hold him guilty. Besides, there was separate business to attend to with the son of the Eli family.

"Just pass on a message. Tell him to visit the palace soon."

He had made too big of a mess to have a lengthy conversation. It seemed the talk would have to be postponed until the next day.

"Let's go back."

And like that, the prince's outing from the palace came to an end.

* * *

Overnight, an uproar broke out in the kingdom.

More than a dozen sons of noble families were detained in the royal palace's prison.

"What is the reason! You have to at least tell us the cause so we can report to our masters!"

The proxies of the noble families residing in The Capital protested fiercely. They pressed the royal palace's guard captain, demanding to know what the charges were. And when they finally learned the whole story, no one raised their voice like they had at first.

The crime of insulting the royal family and the crime of treason—they were told that witnesses had already been secured for these terrifying charges. The proxies slipped out of the royal palace as if fleeing.

The same was true for the proxy of House Balson.

Even while watching his young lord dying in a cold cell with all his front teeth missing and his jaw shattered, the proxy could do nothing. The proxy pleaded for them to at least provide treatment, but even that was denied.

The reason was that the First Prince had issued a strict order otherwise.

* * *

"You've made quite a grand mess the moment your probation was lifted."

The King's cold voice echoed through the great hall. However, First Prince Adrian Leonberk, who could be called the culprit behind all this commotion, was entirely composed.

"I was ignored and mocked to my face. Should I have just stayed still?"

"You're unnecessarily brazen."

"Because I did nothing wrong."

He wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place if he hadn't mingled with such a worthless crowd, but the prince pretended not to hear anything disadvantageous to himself.

"Do you even know what you've done?"

Things had become complicated because he had thoughtlessly blabbered about treason and insulting the royal family. If it had been just one family, he would have handed down a severe punishment for the honor of the Royal House, but there were as many as fourteen families involved. On top of that, even the son of House Guirn, who could be called the leader of the noble faction, was entangled in this.

Handling it according to the law would cause quite a large backlash. If things went wrong, an unsavory incident could occur. Yet, if he left it as it was, the honor of the royal family would plunge to the ground.

It was a headache-inducing situation, but of course, it wasn't without a solution. It might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

However, apart from that, he intended to punish the prince for acting without thinking. He had no desire to let him run wild like a reckless fool and smear feces on the honor of the Royal House again like before.

"You aren't worrying about the backlash, are you?"

He was contemplating what punishment to hand down when the prince suddenly spoke.

"They are individuals who have been given up on by their own families. Keeping them around will only drag their families' names through the mud."

The King narrowed his eyes and looked at the prince.

The prince was a scoundrel, but he didn't have enough guts to act arrogant in front of him. He had only ever treated his father with fear, avoidance, and silence.

"They're hopeless cases; handing their families over to them would jeopardize their futures."

"Sounds exactly like your story."

"Why wouldn't it?"

He had never run his mouth this insolently before.

"Send a letter."

"To whom?"

*'You keep acting like this even though you already know.' * The prince's behavior was truly insolent and atrocious.

Had he lost all sense of fear because he had survived a near-death experience? Or had there been some sort of change in him?

However, instead of scolding him, the King quietly waited for an answer. Depending on the answer, he could punish the prince's insolence or make a different choice.

"To their brothers and sisters."

The King looked at the prince without a word. The prince did not avoid his gaze.

After a long while, the King opened his mouth.

"Leave."

What came out of the King's mouth was not a punishment.

"Yes, sir."

The prince grinned and bowed his head.

* * *

"I should clean up my own shit."

I had even provided a way to resolve the commotion that happened overnight, so there was nothing more to hold back on. As soon as I arrived at the Prince's Palace, I summoned Adelia Bayern to my room.

She looked incredibly anxious, not knowing what I was going to say. She chewed on her lip, wondering if she had made a mistake, looking just like a sinner.

"Relax. I'm not going to harm you."

I tried speaking as softly as possible, but it didn't work.

'That scoundrel bastard must have tormented her quite a bit.'

With a sigh, I had her sit across the table. And then, I asked about her family.

"It is merely an insignificant family that barely has its name on the noble registry. It is not a family worthy of Your Highness's attention."

It was the exact same answer I had heard the day before. She had absolutely no idea what kind of great family she was a descendant of.

It was a lamentable thing.

Its history of glory had been erased, and its peerless arts had been severed. Its once tremendous prestige and lofty pride had vanished without a trace.

But even amidst all that, something remained.

I looked above her head. I saw the status window floating in the air.

The 「Legacy」 that Adelia Bayern had inherited was right there.